


Sorna Saga

by Trog



Series: Sorna Saga [1]
Category: Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies), Jurassic Park Series - Michael Crichton, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Dinosaurs, Original Character(s), Other, Velociraptors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23373268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trog/pseuds/Trog
Summary: Hot on the heels of the Jurassic world incident and the events at Lockwood manor, a wealthy businessman comes forward to a group of investors with an insane proposition. But his deal is too good to pass up, even after everything that's occurred. what's a couple hundred vacationer's lives to a group of investors, who have no liability?
Series: Sorna Saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681087





	1. Site B Reborn

**Author's Note:**

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > CONTENT WARNING!!! < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <
> 
> > > > This work should be treated as explicit for the following content: Drug use, sexual themes, extreme graphic violence (including detailed descriptions of blood, Gore and general animal attack related violence), strong language, arguments against (and for) organized religion, and various other content advisories such as moral bankruptcy among characters.  
> While not planned as a sexually explicit story, I reserve the right to add detailed sex scenes should they naturally evolve from the stories' logical progression and should i be so struck by the fancy to write some smut, however unlikely.  
> All characters are, naturally, fictional, and any resemblance to any person living or dead is either coincidence or intentional commentary. < < <
> 
> > > > Concerns of Cannon Integrity < < <  
> This work assumes the entire film franchise, from the 1993 original Jurassic Park up to Jurassic World: Fallen kingdom, as canon, as well as select information from the original books with edits where that information may conflict with the established lore. The following are assumed facts of the world this story takes place in;  
> The "velociraptors" are either a misidentified variety of deinonychus or a variety of Utah raptor. true velociraptors are the size of chickens or large turkeys.  
> The eyesight of tyrannosaurus rex is not naturally based on movement; rather, this is a side effect of Ingen's original clones heavily utilizing the DNA of African bull frogs, and subtle alteration of the genome (or several generations of breeding) would conceivably rectify it's vision.  
> The original population of Isla Sorna (saurian and otherwise) was wiped out by an aggressive strain of meningitis introduced into the population via sheep meat and spread by the population of compsagnathus, in conjunction with the highly aggressive hybridized spinosaurus, which hunted and killed 99% of the island's remaining wildlife.  
> The cloning process has had difficulty recreating feathers in the cloned animals. it's unclear whether this is due to frog DNA being used or if the cloning process itself is causing genetic distortion that disrupts the natural development of the dinosaurs feathers.  
> Lastly, That brontosaurus in fallen kingdom would have been able to survive safely on the dock until the magma cooled, I don't care what you say, that shit was WAY too sad. She made it back into the forest and ate all the leaves, damn it...

“Another Jurassic park? Are you insane? The only reason why Jurassic World got a second chance at all was the sheer demand for what it had, what it promised! But now we have dinosaurs on the loose, activist groups advocating ‘dinosaur rights’, Vocal public figures like that Malcolm guy, on and on. What makes you think-” The man in front of them, a handsome Hispanic man in his 40s who looked like he was in his late 20’s in a slick black Italian suit, gently raised a hand to quiet the man’s objection politely. “before you continue allow me to clarify my offer, ladies and gentlemen; I wish to sell to at least five of you an amount of non-liability shares in the new Jurassic park, equal to approximately 49% of the corporate worth at a steep discount, making you a partner. Then, 1 to 3 months after the park is up and running we’ll hold a shareholder’s meeting where I will offer to buy each of you out at the park share’s current market values, plus a 10% royalty for your cooperation. If you so choose to stay invested we will re-visit your shares. Until then, you will maintain absolutely no liability. As majority shareholder any liability will be mine alone to bear.” A silence hung over the meeting room for a long minute before one of the investors spoke up;

“Why are you giving us this investment offer, then, Mr. Dorado? What’s the point?” asked a woman in a sharp dress and bearing a stern expression. She could be confused for a young catholic nun if not for her modern outfit. Alejandro Gonzales Dorado turned subtly so as to regard her more directly, smiling politely. “The Costa Rican government has been extremely guarded against any further enterprises involving genetic manipulation, especially further acts of de-extinction. While I was able to purchase Isla Sorna from Masrani global lock, stock and barrel, the Costa Rican government have made every effort to slow My companies’ progress there. They have finally agreed to cease intervention if I can gain backing from at least five investors.” He grinned, regarding them all. “believe me ladies and gentlemen, if money was the only problem, it wouldn't be a problem at all. I basically only need your backing as a permission slip.” the prospect investors all chuckled. “So, where will your capital come from?” asked another. “I will personally raise the capital myself. I’m confident that this venture will more than return on any investment I make.”  
“How do you intend to avoid a repeat of the previous park’s failures?”  
He paused, measuring the question mentally. “My company and I have looked into an entire suite of improvements on the past park’s designs. I won’t bore you with the details-”  
“Just the broad strokes, then.” the stern faced woman again. She was beginning to irk him. He sincerely hoped she would invest; He needed investors who were unafraid of questioning, challenging or displeasing him. 

“Very well; where The original park had only used electrified cable fences alongside concrete motes to contain the assets and Jurassic wold relied largely on concrete and iron walls with asset containment forces, the new park will rely on both methods, an electrified fence, in front of a mote, in front of concrete walls with wide viewing ports for the largest and most dangerous assets, supported by specialized asset containment teams and equipped with failsafe locks: if the power to the paddock is lost the gate’s dead bolts, three feet in diameter, lock into place automatically. Not for all the paddocks, some of them will be fine with zoo grade Plexiglas, the dilophosaurs for example. But in the case of the raptors, T.rexes and other large carnivores all of these will be imperative. Additionally most of the enclosures will be further separated from the visitor centres by double wide concrete motes and a solid steel perimeter fence which is electrified and barbed. With the much larger Isla Sorna we will also be making our paddocks for all the animals much, much larger, as well as providing enrichment for them. Happy animals are less likely to attempt to escape, as has been shown repeatedly in large scale zoos. The staff will all be vetted and subject to thorough background checks, required to take stringent training classes both for interacting with the animals and the park guests. Finally, the park will be subject to twice annual safety inspections. I would also welcome you all to offer any suggestions you may have.”

“And, supposing all of those defence measures fail, what happens?”  
“Then we mobilize asset protection with lethal armaments and evacuate the island of all guests and non-essential personnel before working to contain the assets and restart the system. If we can’t, we evacuate the remaining employees and allow the park to be opened to rich hunters, wiping out the population and starting over. “  
“wiping them out? You think that would be the best way to handle a total loss of control?”  
“We’ve all seen what happens if a dinosaur park loses all control. We can’t allow sentimentality or corporate concerns to intervene with guest safety, lest we suffer the mistakes of the past. If worst comes to worst, I intend to arm asset protection with the highest grade weaponry money can buy and have them personally eradicate every asset on the island… god forbid.” He said with conviction. “Look, I have no illusions of making the perfect system here. There will be escapes despite the best efforts of all involved, and while keeping these animals alive and well is a top priority, THE top priority is guest and employee safety.” The investors looked to one another silently, a couple shaking their heads in dissent but most looking convinced and impressed. “Just one more question.” asked the stern faced woman. “where did you get the genetic material? And how will you clone the new… ‘assets’?” Alejandro smiled, one could say evilly. “Ingen and Jurassic park were very sloppy. The better question is where DIDN’T I find the genetic material? Many of my more low profile ventures were responsible for the cleanup of the Coasta Rican jungles, escaped auction animals and the massive banks of carrion from Isla Sorna’s “extinction event” as it has been popularly referred to as. As for how I intend to clone them… well, Dr. Wu is a talented man, but he isn’t the final word in genetic science and the cloning process. I have several talented young men and women eager to make their mark, including the dissection of the genomes of some of Wu’s “custom” works. Within reason of course.” he stood at the head of the conference table, looking over each of them with his own assessing eye.

“But, the ball is in your courts, now. I will give you all a couple weeks to decide, but if I don’t hear from you by then I will look into other investors.”


	2. First impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The introduction of the new male Raptor to the pack alpha in a behavioural experiment unfolds, while human drama simmers in the background.

Ten years later~

Crow stood three feet from the dividing fence, watching the big female slash and snap at him from the other side, fury in stark contrast to his calm as he watched. Why was she so angry? Why did she want to harm him so badly? He tilted his head curiously to one side. She bore three scars down the left of her face, a ring of tooth marks around her neck, a long slash line along her rib cage on her right, and a criss-cross of less distinct marks along her brown and black-striped hide. He turned and walked along the gate, keeping his sulfur yellow-green eyes on her. She followed along snapping and slashing the whole way. Aggressive. She favoured her left side, her right so marred by previous fights she’d switched dominant flanks.  
Crow was 6 months young, black with a faintly iridescent indigo stripe running from behind his eyes down his length. He also sported the nasal crests and quills of Sorna’s native male raptors. He paced until Scar quieted down, breathing heavily.  
He assumed an aggressive posture and let out his most threatening screech, whipping the female into a frenzy as she tried to reprimand his arrogant display. He snarled silently, body relaxed; smiling was a habit he picked up from the humans.  
He mused at how easy it had been to rile her back into a fervor. He waited for Scar to calm down before he turned to the clear-wall that human-mother was watching from, bobbing his head; the signal to begin the “game”. Crow had played the game with the other two yesterday, and before that the humans played the game with him after showing him videos of raptors making the help call and clumsily imitating it with a strange rock like thing. It was relatively simple; One of the “players” would make a help call and get a piece of food. Then the other player had to make the help call, and if they did it correctly they would get half of that food. He made sure he had Scar’s attention before he started, making the help call. 

Scar had heard the other raptor pack make the help call before, the coastal natives led by the male with the red quills. She never saw it cause a wall to open, though. She watched the young male pull out two steer legs that were practically as large as he was, stop and look to her, expectantly. Did he want something from her?  
Crow was less than optimistic about how well Scar would play the game, not because she seemed dumb, but she seemed too hostile to want to learn. At the very least she wouldn’t make it easy. Scar sat panting in front of the divider wall, snarling every other breath. Crow met her eyes with his own, calm, and made an enquiring chirp. She replied with a low growl. He waited until she stopped growling before tying again. She huffed and watched. He thought for a moment on what to do, the others had chirped back to him, showing they were ready to listen. He tried matching her halfway and made a growly trilling, calmly and without menace. She matched him, ending with an annoyed huff. Close enough.  
He went over to the far edge of the cage wall that cut off the two of them, letting out a quick “come here” bark before nudging a large drawer in the divider wall, pushing it out to her side. She looked in, saw there was nothing and nudged it back with her foot. He pushed it back out, and she pushed it back again, tapping her sickle claw in annoyance. He ran back to the steer legs and made a help call, pantomiming the whole process before looking to her expectantly. After a few minutes Scar understood that Crow wanted her to use the help call. She also now understood why the humans skipped feeding her today, though why the humans wanted her to cooperate with the male eluded her. The meat smelled good…  
She stood up tall and issued an intimidating hooting command, loud enough to shake the observation window and make crow flinch a bit, the young male stepping back slightly. She looked expectantly at him, her eyes gleaming. The other two raptors hadn’t directly challenged him like this, he didn’t know what to do.

“This is the last one, right?” asked Andrews, an investor representative for the palaeontological committee of equivalent modern study, which he practised declaring because it seemed important despite it basically meaning he was the errand boy for rich fossil hunters. Vicky didn’t bother looking at him, she knew he was wearing some drab grey suit that all the legal type wore because it was “professional”. He could care less about the science, in her opinion. “Yes, this is the last experiment of the set. If scar can follow the instructions, we can safely assume that the non-raptor DNA is not having a meaningful impact on how they communicate.”  
“supposedly.” Andrews commented, sipping his coffee which brandished the park logo. “Isn’t there a modified female? Why are you only using the male?”  
“He had a sister, but she escaped and asset containment was forced to terminate her.” she answered coldly. Andrews gaped. “That was a multi-million dollar asset!” he said, struggling to contain his volume. “I’m aware, and believe me I would have rather had them dose her, but Mr. Dorado is taking park safety extremely seriously, and the raptors have a reputation for lethality.” her statement was punctuated by one of the raptor’s barking calls, and they sat sombrely as the test continued. “Does her non-cooperation throw a wrench in your theory?” he asked.  
“Not exactly. As an alpha with relatively unmodified DNA Scar’s always been difficult, especially after several of her siblings betrayed her trust.”  
“Scar? You named her?”  
“It makes studies simpler. Scar is more descriptive than RPT-027. But she’s being deliberately obstinate to affirm dominance.”  
“Oh, so she’s like our investors.” He remarked, causing Vicky to giggle despite her disposition towards him. He let the silence hang as Vicky focused on the experiment. While the park’s attractions didn’t particularly interest him he understood the importance of these studies for his investors. 

He froze, looking over at the observation window knowing his human mother was watching, looking for a cue on what to do, but Scar barked out another command, punctuating it with a snarl. He began to pantomime the process again, but Scar hissed, stomping her foot and barking out another command. She understood what he wanted, but she wanted him to simply obey her command.  
Crow felt nervous and exposed, automatically lowering his posture to something more submissive, but he stopped. There was a wall of bars between her and him, and he was the one with the food. Why should he submit? She couldn’t get in to force him to give her the food. Crow stood back in a confident, un-submissive posture, sauntering over to the steer haunches. Indignant, Scar barked a command, only for Crow to caw loudly in interruption. Scar cocked her head back, not having expected that response; she was used to the other two of her pack obeying her whenever she made an order. He laid down and began to gnaw on a haunch. She began another command bark only for crow to mockingly caw several times. She snarled viciously at him, raking the air through the bars with her claws and biting at him. He feigned boredom and began to rip off small bites of one of the haunches, pretending she wasn’t even there. She let out a loud screeching roar. No reaction. Snarling and frustrated, she glared at him through the bars. Then she made a whistling bark with three distinct notes. Crow stopped and looked to her, tilting his head slightly before making a help call. Scar matched the time of the call but it came out more as a series of growls. Crow approached the bars, mindful to keep just out of reach, and slowly demonstrated the help call, exaggerating the call to show that he was using the vocalization chamber in his snout and not his throat. Scar got pretty close, getting the notes, tone and pitch correct, but ended up coughing hoarsely. Crow looked back at the observation window, and not getting confirmation one way or another, decided that scar did well enough to warrant the reward. Clumsily he dragged the steer haunch he hadn’t been chewing on over to the drawer, heaving it in and pushing the drawer closed.

“Should he have started eating that?” Andrews asked, closer now; he had moved in to get a better view of the action. “Technically no, but he normally wolfs down his food, you’ll see in just a minute. I believe he started mock-eating to force Scar’s compliance. It suggests he has high enough empathy to think from another creature’s point of view and abstract out how they would feel and act.” she said, as much to herself as she jot down notes as to Andrews. She smiled confidently. “Why are you smiling? She didn’t make the noise.”  
“But she tried! She attempted to comply, which is the main focus of the study. The vocalization itself isn’t the important part, and we know that she is more or less identical to the original park’s raptor’s genetic makeup. Her vocalization is a matter of experience. She also demonstrated that she understood what the call meant.” she finished writing out the report and began to walk away to begin the transfer of the raptors back to their respective paddocks, thought better of leaving the raptors unattended and radioed the asset containment team on the catwalks to watch them carefully with tranq guns at the ready. “I understand that you’ve become rather attached to that male raptor, Dr. Pierce.” He stated, his voice laden with accusation. “And?” she asked with unveiled venom. She could tell this was going somewhere, but she wouldn’t offer any progress in that direction until after Andrews said it outright. “Well, some concerns for the mutual safety of you and the animal have been-”  
“No concern is necessary; part of today’s experiment was practical acclimatization to Scar’s pride. My attachment to Crow is irrelevant, he’ll join the pack in a couple months, right on schedule.” She cut in. “Well, be that as it may, there have been reports of you interacting with it in the nursery without protective gear or guards.” there it was, the tattle. She went through her mental black book and singled out Becky from the herbivore division. 

“Look, my primary concern is for the health of both the individual animal and the pack’s. I’ve been Crow’s surrogate mother for months and while I understand this animal will be a lethal killer in less than two months, I also know that separation anxiety is a weakness that will get him torn apart by the other pack members. I have scheduled a gradual separation process that is easing the transition, and a week before he hits 8 months old he’ll be ready to join the pack. And you can tell that little snitch Becky that her precious nursery will be clear of raptor scent weeks in advance of her clutch hatching, so if she can stop being a meddling office nag she’ll have nothing to worry about, and if she or anyone else doesn’t like it,” she pulled an envelope out of her lab coat, flashing a glimpse of her Lara Croft style tank top underneath. “I have correspondence with Mr. Dorado himself stating I have full permission to get this animal ready for release into the raptor paddock by any means necessary. So maybe talk to him after you’re done here. Now if you’ll excuse me I have two raptors to transfer.” She said with a huff.  
“Are you sure it’s Crow that needs to lessen the transition, Dr. Pierce?” He asked. If looks could kill, Andrews would have been pinned to the Plexiglas window as though by a spear. “Yes, I’m sure,” Vicky growled, adding “Are we quite finished, Andrews?”  
“Of course Dr. Pierce.” he said, stepping out of her way. “And you have yourself a wonderful day!” he added as she got about ten feet away. “Go Fuck yourself.” She snarled. Kyle Andrews had never found himself being quite so attracted to a woman who seemed to hate his guts.

Scar grabbed the meat out of the drawer and skulked away to the shade of a tree in the paddock on her side, eyeing him warily as she ate. Crow ate as well, but between wolfing down huge chunks he watches her for long periods. He wondered why she was so aggressive, why she hadn’t learned the help calls and how she gotten so hurt. Hadn’t her human mother protected her? Maybe she didn't have a human mother... He finished his food quickly and approached the dividing bars, making a trilling call. Scar jerked her head up from the meal and tilted her head. The trilling sound was something she hadn’t heard since she made it herself to the lab humans before they jabbed her with a needle, threw her in her nest and avoided her where they could. Her siblings hadn’t used the sound to communicate concern, but to deceive her and attack her, stealing her food, so she had to kill them to keep them from doing that to her. But this male had given her this food, why hadn’t he just kept the food? She looked over to the clear-wall on his side of the pen, the humans had gone away. She got up and cautiously approached, watching him as she did so. He leaned gently against the bars of the dividing wall and slinked along them. The instinctual part of her that responded to his calls and body language understood he was trying to make flank-to-flank contact, a form of peer-bonding that suggested intimacy of friendliness, she’d seen the other members of her pack do it regularly as they bedded down. They usually refused to do so with her. Crow was a good deal younger than her, though. She could tell he hadn’t reached sexual maturity yet, his limbs were still disproportionately large for his body, although he wasn’t too much younger than her; she was only two years old. They both heard something thump against the side of the paddock, and an opening into a smaller cage opened on Crow’s side of the divider. When he turned to look back at her, Scar had already moved away to return to her meal. Reluctantly, Crow grabbed the bones left of the steer haunch and took it into the cage, waiting to return to his normal enclosure.


	3. The call of The Tyranosaurus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Tyrannosaurus Paddock has a raucous disturbance heralding a new stage in it's research, and Vicky meets up with the park's game warden for a drink.

*BZZZZZZZT!!!*  
Destroyah fell back on her haunches, tongue hanging limp out of her numb jaws. If she could smile (and if her facial muscles weren’t temporarily paralyzed) she would. Unlike most of the dinosaurs in the park, The youngest T. rex enjoyed the sensation of electricity, how her fingers and toes went tingly and how her taste buds became confused, giving the impression of being able to “taste” her numbness. Buck, the the year older male rex, watched passively as his younger paddock mate waited for the sensation to return to her face before going in for another bite. She was still ornery and hyper energetic, whereas he was starting to lose the “puppyish” behaviors and mellowing out, the calm before the storm before his pubescence set in; As an adult he will likely settle into a mild temperament. He glanced over to their senior citizen paddock mate Rexy as she lounged in the field, sunning herself as she snoozed. The cantankerous old tyrannosaur had been captured 78 miles into California wilderness, and was brought into their paddock when buck was just large enough that she couldn’t eat him in a single bite. He’d learned the hard way to give her her space, which wasn’t too hard nowadays given she spent most of her time asleep. He quickly forgot his reverie when he heard a sound that he had been waiting for for hours; the screaming of humans and the metal clacking of the rail thing. Every day it would pass over the pond near the forward corner of their enclosure, and he would chase it. The roller-coaster was just high enough that none of the tyrannosaurs could reach it, and Buck knew he couldn’t catch it, but something about chasing the rail-thing loaded with screaming humans scratched an itch for the chase of the hunt that he just couldn’t kick.

His muscles twitched as it neared, gliding into view and slowing to a lazy 40 MPH. He waited until they were past the trees before he burst into a sprint, roaring threateningly as he made waves through the pond with his strides. He chomped his jaws reflexively as he eyed the dozens of dangling legs. He made one last snapping hop at them before the rail thing zipped back around, picking up speed as it twisted over the fences, mote and concrete wall. He sauntered over to the pond, remembering a number of phones and wallets he caught falling from the humans pockets, how they tasted awful and how there was at least 5 dozen more buried in the mud of the pond, one had gave him an abscessed tooth. Looking out to the pond he saw the gouge he had chewed into the rail support when he was still teething. He remembered that when he started chewing on the cold steel pole there were humans with bright orange and yellow helmets who looked at it, back when they had the movable electric walls they used to keep him and Rexy away when they would look at the enclosure and fix things. That was a long time ago, and now the hole had grown from rust. The next coaster wouldn’t pass over for an hour. He decided to go watch the long-necks through the fence on the far side of the paddock. He heard another electric buzz as Destroyah took another bite of electric fencing. He would have smiled at what he considered his little sister, if he had the ability. She may be occasionally irritating but he was fond of her, recognized her as kin. Rexy was too, even if she was a grumpy old timer.  
He strode past ol’ Rexy, calmly but making a point to move quickly. She only bothered to lazily open one eye to watch him pass before going back to her nap.  
The apatosaurus paddock fence was made of heavy bars of solid steel with electrified fencing along it’s interior to further dissuade the gentle giants from trying their luck against it, and separated from the T. rex’s paddock by a mote and the rex paddock’s own concrete barrier wall. Not exactly great for his viewing, but he’d learned a while ago that he could look into the the neighbor’s enclosure by sitting on a hill close to the fence. It wasn’t so close to the fence that he could climb out of his own enclosure, but it was close enough to give him a good view. A couple of the apatosaurs made warning calls to the rest of the pod when they saw him, and he watched as their heads rose from the treetops, more calls adding to the chorus and eyes scanning nervously until they too saw them. Their necks looked tender and tasty: he wished he could get in there and run one down. He bet he could. The sun was sinking down to the horizon as the last apatosaur disappeared deeper into their paddok. Buck wondered what the sun would taste like, before realizing he often wondered about the world in terms of what things would taste like. He decided he wouldn’t want to eat the sun, not just because it always flew so far out of reach, but he rather liked the light and warmth it provided. He wondered where it went every night. Maybe it hunted the clouds? That made sense to him, he rarely ever saw the sun and clouds at the same time.

As he watch the sun set he felt a strange new urge to roar very loudly, to challenge everything in the park. He didn’t really understand this new impulse, but some ancient part of him told him he had to to claim his territory, that it was absolutely imperative. He stood up, inhaled deeply and let out a long, loud roar, as loud as he could manage. It was answered by several brontosaurs, the baryonyx, the raptors, and several other dinosaurs. He felt small then, like he probably couldn’t defend his territory if one of those creatures challenged him. He felt the impact tremors from rexy as she came over and looked at him, a strange exchange of understanding passed between them. Rexy let loose a brassy challenge into the park, louder than Buck’s, but not challenging him, and it seemed to double when Buck added his voice to the challenge, drowning out all other challenges and dominating the air for miles. Destroyah joined in after charging over, sounding much higher and more awkward than the other two, but the feeling of solidarity was there. “here WE are!” thought Buck as their cacophany crescendoed. “Come fight us if you dare, we can defend OUR territory!”

No other dinosaurs challenged them this time.

He looked to Rexy and she gave him a stare of what looked to him like approval before walking around the paddock, looking back to him to make sure he was following, watching. She marked occasional trees, Buck doing the same after a few repeats. His scent wasn’t as pungent as hers but it had the start of adult pheromones. Destroyah sprinted away, looking for the tractor tire that had been added to the rex paddock for her to teeth on.

Harold Vargas was recording the rex paddock when they began roaring in concert, using the multitude of cameras peppered throughout the enclosure as well as the live feeds from the visitor live feed drones. He needed neither to be able to hear the window shaking performance, but made a point to record every part of the event that he could. Dr. pierce would appreciate as much behavioral data he could get. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and trained one of the drones on the two rexes before answering. “well speak of the devil… Hello doctor pierce, how are ya?”  
“honestly? I need a drink. What has the Tyranosauruses riled up?”  
“It’s the damnedest thing, doctor; our little boy is growing up.” He replied, faking an emotional quaver in his voice.  
“huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” Vicky asked.  
He laughed quietly, shaking his head. “I’ll tell ya over drinks, but i’ll cover all the details in the report i’ll send ya here in a few. Meet you at Rusty’s in a hour?”  
“Sounds good. See you there.” She hung up. He glanced over to the monitor and tilted his head from side to side, debating with himself. He knew the drone would head back to the tower once it’s battery got too low, but then he didn’t want to lock it up that long and risk a visit from “the director of hospitality”. Tammy had a way of making a speech out of her coaching visits. He also didn’t want to miss anything important happening with the tyranosaurs. He subtly changed his lock on the rexes to follow for an hour before re-opening for guest controls. Satisfied with the compromise he head out of the rex paddock observation building. He briefly considered taking his jeep all the way to Rusty’s, but decided to just take it to the parking garage in the visitor range. He planned to drink tonight and would do well to avoid getting behind the jeep’s wheel after a few. It wasn’t far from there to the visitor tram station where he caught the evening tour’s returning batch loading on. Harold couldn’t help wondering what had Vicky’s feathers ruffled so bad that she’d turn to drinking. Then again, she was kind of the definition of a fiery red head, it wasn’t hard to get her into a fighting mood.

Rusty’s bar was at the end a road shooting off of main street that honestly looked like a maintenance access. The little dive bar was run by “Rusty” Roger Block, a retiree and generally agreed upon “cool guy”. The bar was not situated by mistake, nor was the park’s failure to advertise his bar. Rusty refused to charge the exorbitant prices the other bars were charging, making him too competitively priced compared to the other bars on main street. Frankly, Rusty didn’t care, he kept his bar to the margins, quietly servicing the park staff with fairly priced, straight forward food and drink. The park management is content to pretend it doesn’t exist, because his business keeps the majority of park workers from demanding employee discounts. Rusty himself is a bit of a controversial figure, as he has exploited a number of loopholes to become a legal resident of Jurassic park. In person he tends to be an unassuming black man who wouldn’t look out of place in a retiree bluegrass ban, with salt and pepper hair and a well trimmed goatee, and always chewing on a toothpick, a hold-over from quitting his smoking habit back in his 30’s. He was behind the bar when Harold walked in, turned away from the door but still noticing who came in, somehow. “Evening Hank” came his smoky baritone. “Margarita extra salt?” he asked, already reaching for the typical glass.  
“That and a glass of red breast whiskey on the rocks, if you’ve got it.”  
“Ooo look at you. It your birthday or somethin’?” He asked taking the bottle of whiskey off the top shelf. Harold took his seat on the stool next to vicky, who was sipping a dirty martini.  
“Close; our boy buck is turning into an adult rex.”  
“Again with that, what do you mean?” Vickey chimed in.

“Is that what the were howling about? Like cats, getting loud as they do the deed?” rusty asked.  
“Not exactly...” Hank removed his hat and accepted the glasses. “ I believe it was a territorial display, Buck started roaring at sunset. When the other animals started to respond Rexy joined in, seemingly to reinforce his claim. Destroya even piped in with them. When I left they seemed to be marking trees along the fence.  
“wait, are you sure?”  
“Not absolutely, it’s more of a gut feeling really. Rexy used to do it five-ish years ago when she first arrived. She probably stopped because she felt secure and didn’t have a need to do it.” He sipped his margarita thoughtfully .  
“Young blood’s got somthin’ to prove.” mused Rusty with a chuckle.  
“Do you think he will try to breed with one of the others?”  
“I dont think so, Destroya is still a bit too young, and rexy doesn’t strike me as a cougar.”  
Rusty let out a robust laugh as he went to service another customer at the bar.  
“But mr. Dorado’s breeding plans may have a leg to stand on after all?”  
“Yeah, it might...” he took a sip and stared into the distance.  
“You know, as the lead game warden and chief researcher of jurassic park’s biggest attraction , one would think you’d be less morose over a previously unwitnessed life stage being witnessed in YOUR subjects.” she nudged him playfully.  
“Well as a member of asset containment, the rexes are second to last on the list of dinosaurs I want breeding.”  
“Oh yeah? what’s the first?”  
He replied with a silent bitter smile and taking a sip of his whiskey.

“So what’s got YOU all riled up doc? Can’t say I’ve ever seen you turn to the bottle for stress relief.”  
Vicky rolled her eyes and sipped her martini. “I got a visit from andrews about “safety concerns”. Basically one of our co-workers snitched that I had crow in the nursery. Fucking bitchescould care less if I actually got mauled, they’re just pissy about traces of raptor scent linger and makes their herbivores panicky. Maybe if they didn’t just leave baby bronto shit in their nursery, they wouldn’t HAVE to deal with the PREDATOR nursery having PREDATOR scent in it while the herbivore nurseries get deep cleaned. You know, do their JOB. Just a thought, I mean really-” She proceeed to tirade for twenty minutes straight, airing her grievances against the herbivore hatchling team.  
“Andrews huh? He’s kind of cute.”  
“UGH! Maybe if you like smug, corporate rich-boy types! He’s barely even on the island most weeks!”  
“maybe he will now that he’s met you.”  
“Oh my god shut up.”  
“Still, he was just a corporate rep. He might not be such a bad guy if you get to know him. You just met him today.” he replied. Vicky made a dismissive sound and knocked back her drink. “Another, pretty-please Rusty!”  
“Sure thing, sis.” He replied, clearing her drink and starting a drink in a fresh glass.  
“So, how’d your experiment go?”  
“Oh, it went great! Scar isn’t pleased that Crow wouldn’t buckle under aggressive feedback, but after some posturing and cheeky behavior on Crow’s part, she complied. I think he’s finally ready to start integrating into the pride.”  
“And unentangling from you?” he asked, receiving a nasty glare from her.  
“Watch yourself cowboy.” she said coldly.  
“You have to admit that you have a rather doting relationship with Crow.”  
“I have to admit I really didn’t expect you to take Andrew’s side on this!”  
“I’m not! But, well… everyone sees how you look at your subjects, hears the admiration you have for them, and while it’s an honorable disposition that this place was founded on, I’m just saying that-”  
“I’m working with the island’s most dangerous predators, yeah I KNOW. Everyone acts like I’m going to throw open the raptor paddock gates cackling like the wicked witch of the west screaming “FLY MY PRETTIES FLY!!!” I’m NOT! But nobody wants to acknowledge that socializing and imprinting parental behaviors onto the animals is imperative to well adjusted and socialized animals as well as actualizing mr. Dorado’s plans to have breeding populations.”  
Harold let out a long sigh and let the silence hang before trying to continue. “All I’m saying is It will be emotionally taxing for both you and Crow, he’s reaching the stage where you have to let him go be a big boy raptor and join the pride. There will probably be a rough period of isolation for both of you, where you won’t be able to see each other, in order to fully divorce the two of you and have him actualize that he has to stand on his own among fellow raptors… maybe you should take a week off while that happens, god knows you have the vacation hours.”  
She stared at her reflection in the mirror in the back of the bar shelves.  
“… Maybe you’re right…” she admitted somberly, taking another sip of her drink.


End file.
